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“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

We all collect “old sayings” as we live.  Nuggets of truth embedded in a pithy few words.  The bible even has its own collection of proverbs.  Shorthand commonsense.  Usually saved for just the right moments when we can point out another’s stupidity (or is that only me).  Because I rarely use these pearls of wisdom to live my own life.  Usually it is to enjoy another’s “error”.  Pointing out their mistake to help them:

“Can’t you see it … I can … it’s so obvious!”

Under yesterday’s post Denine added a lovely comment.  And then a second.  And in the second something pinged a nerve.  It was the phrase “identity theft”.   Denine used it In the context of yesterday’s post: “This relationship with sin” and sent me looking for:

“If it prays like a Christian, churches like a Christians, and lives like a Christian, then it probably is a Christian.”

Identity theft.  All the outward signs of something “it” is not.  All the outward signs of something we have created: A Christian.  All the outward signs that have nothing to do with the inside.  The inside stuff that has no label other than that we each give individually to a relationship we each have (or have not) individually.  A “Christian” is an outside appearance we have made our identity:  I am a Christian.

Just like:  I am a Muslim.  I am a Hindu.  I am an Atheist.  I am an Agnostic.  I am a Humanist.  I am an Apologetic Christian.  I am a Radical Christian.  I am an Evangelical Christian.  I am a Qualified Christian.  I am a Shifting Bunch of Beliefs I call My Identity.

I am not a Christian.

I used to be, but I found that being a Christian is restrictive.  It ties and binds me to the accepted definition of “a Christian”.  And that definition is not mine.  Not when it comes to God Soft Hands Jesus and the bible and prayer and giving and being and relationship.  Those things are mine and not yours.  We can talk.  We can share.  We can discover differences that broaden the journey – make it more inclusive.  But Christians have a creed.  And that creed is a statement of belief.  And that statement doesn’t use the word love.  And I have no idea why.  The God and Jesus I see in the bible is nothing other than love.

And I wonder whether “identity theft” is a necessary part of being a Christian … a Muslim … an Atheist … an “Anything” … that requires a spoken, or unspoken, statement of belief of “belonging”.

I wonder if that statement of belief robs me of my identity – makes my “identity” someone else’s.

“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

Works fine for the outside.  But I live outside AND inside.

I am “in”dwelt.

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